Screams, Whispers and Echos
by LeaderLoverLost
Summary: An author's dumping ground of unconnected shorts. Some AU
1. LOST

**AN: This began as a series of random bits and pieces that were just laying around and expanded to a sort of author's dumping ground for everything that wasn't a full story. So, enjoy what can be enjoyed and, if you're like me, get lines from the darker ones trapped in your head until you have to go searching for where they came from.  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own it. I will not type this again in this series. **

LOST

"You promised," she whispered.

"I did."

"You broke that promise."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"They said you were dead."

"I loved you."

"I know, I loved you too."

"I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"I was there when they told you and I didn't say a word."

"You were there?"

"Black hair, purple eyes…no one was supposed to know, only a few knew I wasn't dead…"

"Why did you let them?"

"I was so confused, I didn't understand what was going on."

"So while I was thinking you were dead and sleeping around trying to forget, you were trying to figure everything out." It was a statement, not a question.

"I broke mine too."

"What?"

"I broke my promise too."

"Why?"

"I was so upset and mad at myself for not telling you, for not going after you that I slept around as punishment to myself."

"Punishment?"

"It was different, it wasn't you, wasn't _us_, so it was punishment to let someone else have me…"

-finish-


	2. DARKNESS

DARKNESS

The Darkness swirled around her, caressing her, leaving a taste like poison in her mouth. It wanted her. Wanted to consume her. Wanted to turn her to the Dark. Wanted her to be consumed in hatred.

But she would not give in.

She would fight it.

-finish-


	3. HUMAN

HUMAN

Of course she was a Princess but once Solo had her he made her human. You could hold a real conversation with her, get her to smile, or laugh, or just have a real facial expression, you could even touch her, casually of course.

No one even dared to think about it before, before when the most emotion she showed was hugging Luke or screaming her tiny lungs out at Solo. Before, when she was a numb little Ice Princess and hardly even human.

After she came back from Bespin she was a wreck. She would break down randomly and hardly ever spoke. She had terrible nightmares, and you could hear her screaming from the other side of _Home One. _

The day she left for Tatooine we all realized that whatever Solo had done to her, he'd succeeded in something we never thought would happen; he'd melted the Ice Princess and made her human.

The day they came back was even better, and by the end of the first night on Endor we knew that she had a whole range of emotions, and by the 2nd we knew she was capable of love.

Sounds terrible, I know, but that's how it was.

~Wedge Antilles

-finish-


	4. ELITE

ELITE

In the Rebellion a lot of our warrior elite were from the lower ranks of society. Sure Princess Leia grew up in the upper crust, but she and Luke were orphans from the ranks of fugitive Jedi, definitely low on the social ladder at the time.

Solo, like many others whom I will not name, was an orphan from the streets, which is considered undesirable even now.

Others were deserters or drop-outs from the Academy, like most of the pilots, which put us on Imperial Wanted lists. Others had been court-martialed. Most were fugitives, some, like Chewbacca, were freed slaves. Others still were hiding from pasts as dark as Vader's.

Then there were the Force sensitives. Some of our absolute best ground troops and pilots we had. They were hidden in our ranks and their seemingly hypersensitive abilities saved quite a few of us at one time or another, though they didn't really know how they were doing it. Luke was probably the only one who knew about Force abilities at the time anyway.

~Hobbie Kilvian

-finish-


	5. AFTER ALL THIS TIME

**AN: bits and pieces that will hopefully be a part of After All This Time when I get around to it**

* * *

AFTER ALL THIS TIME

She searched the crowd for those familiar hazel eyes that she's longed to see for four long years. They were there, shining with the light of a smile at the sight of her. He was back, and nothing would separate them again.

Despite her frazzled nerves the calm, casual banter soothed her. It was normal when everything else was wrong.

-finish-


	6. VADER

**AN: This is from the point of view of some random rebel dude. Imagine him as you will.**

* * *

VADER

Everyone was afraid of Vader, I don't think there was a person in the galaxy who wasn't afraid of him, except maybe the Emperor who didn't really count. But Leia, good Gods… I remember one day, before we evacuated Yavin IV, someone mentioned Vader and she got really pale and just dropped.

Everyone had good reason to be afraid of Vader, he could kill you without even touching you and other unspeakable things, but the Princess has witnessed these things, maybe even suffered some of them, no one really knew.

For someone we saw as a very strong person to be that afraid of Vader, it certainly didn't help, but we never said a thing about it, watched our words around her. We didn't want the same problem on our hands again.

Then, after Endor, the whispers started. Someone had heard Luke call Leia his sister, and everyone knew who Luke's father was. It was unthinkable. No one wanted to believe it but we did, there wasn't a choice, not after they announced it. No one outside of those who were on Endor knew until Leia was forced to tell High Council.

It hit us later what this meant, Vader, Leia's father, had, to the extent of our knowledge, tortured her.

There were rumors sometime later that Vader had also had a hand in killing Luke and Leia's mother.

Wonderful family, the Skywalkers. In my opinion, anyone who willingly gets involved with that family is just mental.

~Unknown

-finish-


	7. FATHER

**AN: I was inspired to write this upon reading Gunpowder and Shades of Grey by irnan. Accept this as you will whether you see Anakin/Vader this way or not.**

* * *

FATHER

I guess, in essence, it's Darth Vader whom I really hate, not Anakin Skywalker. In a way, Anakin Skywalker was as much of a victim as the rest of us; forced to stand by and watch the death of innocence.

Maybe he was no longer innocent, but we were, and he was made to stand at the door of his prison cell, and watch as ours was stripped away, much as his was, by war.

Maybe the war was responsible for all of this. Responsible for everyone's loss of innocence, for his loss of sanity, for the Dark Side consuming him, imprisoning him.

People say Darth Vader is my father. I've even said it on occasion, but, as Han so often corrects me, Anakin Skywalker is, undeniably, my father, in _every_ sense of the word.

Maybe I really hate one and both of them, not necessarily because of what he, or they, did, but because I see myself reflected in him. In a way of course, maybe not in that senseless murderer that was Vader, but in the kind, caring man who fought for the people, and those he loved. The man who was imprisoned by the Darkness, trying to save his lover. Maybe that's where I see myself. Maybe that's why I hate and love him at the same time. Because we're exactly alike.

~Leia Organa Solo


	8. TO THE GALLOWS

**AN: The chapter that originally went here has disappeared. Both the document and the piece of notebook paper. So instead I give you this. **

**This goes AU when Han leaves instead of coming to get Leia from the Command Center and is a sort of a letter he writes to her.**

* * *

TO THE GALLOWS

FINE,

I'M | STEPPING | BACK,

I'M | LETTING | GO,

IF | YOU | WANT | TO | FALL,

GO | AHEAD,

I | WON'T | BE | THERE | TO | HELP | YOU.

I'M | DONE,

AND | I | HAVE | A | FEELING | THAT | EVEN | IF | I | HELD | YOU | UP,

YOU | WOULD | ONLY | BE | DEADWEIGHT | IN | MY | ARMS.

I | LOVED | YOU,

I | WANTED | TO | HELP | YOU,

BUT | YOU | PUSHED | ME | AWAY.

I'M | LEAVING | NOW | THAT | I | KNOW | THIS | IS | WHAT | YOU | WANT.

IF | THE | EMPIRE | CATCHES | YOU,

THEY'LL | PROBABLY | EXECUTE | YOU | LAST | OF | ALL | YOUR | COMRADES.

I | WISH | I | COULD | STAND | BY | YOUR | SIDE | WHEN | IT | HAPPENS | BUT | I | KNOW | YOU | DON'T | WANT | ME | THERE.

I'LL | PROBABLY | BE | THE | ONLY | ONE | TO | CRY | WHEN | THEY | EXECUTE | YOU.

IF | YOU | ARE | WALKING | TO | THE | GALLOWS,

JUST | KNOW | THAT | SOMEONE | DOES | CARE | ABOUT | YOU,

SOMEONE | DOES | LOVE | YOU.

GO | TO | THE | GALLOWS | SAFELY,

BUT | NOT | QUIETLY,

MY | LOVE,

AND | I | WILL | FOLLOW | YOU | THERE.


End file.
